High-Tech Defectors

BURLINGAME, Calif. -- Sen. Arlen Specter's party switch is ruffling feathers in Washington, D.C. But back in the land of technology, defections are common career-vaulting practice. If anything, moving from one empire to another in techdom is one of the great strengths of Silicon Valley: People share hard-earned methodologies, ideas and make inspired connections between what those in the trenches would see as independent activities.

Serial entrepreneurs, by definition, quit one company that they started to get another going. (This makes venture capitalists happy: better to invest with the devil you know than one that you don't.)

But more intriguing are people who were dyed-in-the-wool company loyalists who jump ship for a competitor. (Proving that loyalty has limits.)

There are plenty: Among those in the news most recently, for instance, is Owen Van Natta, who quit a top spot at social networking site Facebook for a start-up. Two months later, he was ready for the big time again: In April, Van Natta joined MySpace as chief executive.

Since
Steve
Jobs
Steve Jobs
returned to
Apple
, turnover among employees there has been relatively modest. But there is a notable exception: In June 2007, Jon Rubenstein, one of the brains behind Apple's hit iPod music player and other handheld devices, moved to handheld device maker,
Palm
, where he is executive chairman and head of product development.

Needless to say, most companies have complex "non-compete" clauses to prohibit their best and brightest from high-tailing off to a competitor. That didn't help
Microsoft
much when the scientist who had helped start its research center in China, Kai-Fu Lee, quit to join its nemesis,
Google
. After an acrimonious legal battle between the software giants, a Washington judge limited Lee's efforts somewhat until his one-year non-compete expired.

Microsoft has had its share of defectors--and its share of people coups too.
Stephen
Elop
Stephen Elop
had been a contender to run
Adobe
after selling Macromedia (creators of Flash) to the software firm. He jumped to
Juniper Networks
for a brief stint before heading to long-time Adobe rival Microsoft. He heads the Redmond, Wash., giant's Office and business software divisions. (Juniper didn't suffer much from the move: It successfully wooed Microsoft's head of platforms and services division, Kevin Johnson.)

Although 14-year Microsoft veteran
Paul
Maritz
Paul Maritz
had retired from the Redmond software company in 2000, his decision to get back into the fray and head up direct competitor
VMware
must have caused a few moments of consternation at Microsoft. Worse: He tapped former Microsofties, including
Tod
Nielsen
Tod Nielsen
and Richard McAniff, to join him.

Even
Hewlett-Packard
, which once commanded the highest loyalty from its employees, has become a jump-off point. Antonio Perez, who had turned HP's printer and consumer product divisions into some of its most profitable segments, had been mentioned as a possible chief executive candidate for the giant. But in 2003, he joined Kodak as the company's chief executive, with an eye to taking on HP in the consumer inkjet printers business.

Many people in Silicon Valley have done a stint at
Oracle
--and many have gone on to start their own firm. Notable among them is
Marc
Benioff
Marc Benioff
, who left a 13-year career at Oracle with a vision to reinvent the software industry via start-up
Salesforce.com
. At least when Benioff left, he had his boss's blessing:
Larry
Ellison
Larry Ellison
invested in Benioff's start-up.

And then there's the ultimate turncoat: Former hacker Kevin Mitnick got caught and did prison time for his hacking exploits. He then started his own company out of Henderson, Nev., Mitnick Security Consulting, to advise companies how to avoid falling prey to the kinds of tricks he once wielded so effectively.